"Wired has obtained a copy of a cease and desist letter sent by Google to Microsoft today, demanding Microsoft immediately remove the YouTube app from its Windows Phone Store and disable existing copies on consumers' devices by May 22. The YouTube app for Windows Phone - developed by Microsoft not Google - strips out ads and allows downloading, both violations of YouTube's terms of service." Incredibly petty. Just come up with a solution, you bunch of kids.

Microsoft really wanted to use YouTube as a way of making their phone operating system "better" so more people would want it, then they would have written the app in such a way that it's not bound to be subject to a cease-and-desist letter

Just to be clear, any third party implementation of YouTube that uses unofficial APIs runs afoul of the Terms of Service and is potentially open to a C&D from Google.

If downloading were completely removed the app would still be in violation. Ad support is a private API that Microsoft has stated they'd be open to implementing if Google provided the documentation.

The really insincere part on Google is that the YouTube application from Microsoft has existed for 2 years, it only recently (2 weeks ago) got turned into more than a mobile website wrapper -- but people were using YouTube on Windows Phone for years and not viewing a single ad.

There is no way that, one, Microsoft didn't know about the terms of service, and two, they couldn't see this coming if they proceeded (as they did). There just is no excuse for this, and no blame can be placed on Google for Microsoft's actions of blatantly ignoring their TOS.

There are two different types of blame to go around:

- Microsoft for breaking ToS and being heavy handed
- Google for refusing to open up the YouTube API to Microsoft

Is Google's Android position so shaky that a Microsoft platform (a stillborn one, according to you) would represent a threat to them? This is so senseless it's not even funny.

Google on the same day that it called for interoperability and cheered on open standards sent Microsoft a C&D and killed off XMPP.